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I have deliberately taken my time to try to discover just what led to the extraordinary shambles in the Commons on Monday evening. It was not as simple as a good many observers, and indeed participants, may have initially thought.

What is certain is that the debate was billed as being primarily on the European Arrest Warrant, with a vote on that contentious matter. It was expected that despite a rebellion in the Conservative ranks, the Government would have a comfortable majority with the support of Labour.

The Prime Minister had made much of all this and given his word that there would indeed be a vote on the EAW.

I am sure that was what he intended. I hope that the advice on procedure, which I take it came from the Leader of the House, William Hague, was clear, unambiguous and well… Read More

I was pleased to see the Republicans doing so well in the mid-term elections in America, particularly as it gives greater hope that we will not face the horror of Hillary Clinton cast in the role of leader of the free world during what may well be very difficult times ahead.

However, in the short term, until after the presidential elections in 2016, there is now an even greater risk of a paralysis of government in both Washington and Westminster. That will no doubt be exploited both by Vladimir Putin and the various strains of Islamism led by Isil.

Here we have just witnessed the near non-event of the resignation of Norman Baker, the Lib Dem Home Office minister, who is now free to devote all his time to uncovering… Read More

I managed to get a couple of days at Westminster early this week and found a deep mood of pessimism there among friends on both sides of the House.

It was not, as many readers might believe, confined to fears about the fate of one party or the other at the next election. It was about the difficulties surrounding the formation of a stable government – and the baleful effects of the fixed-term parliament legislation, which was enacted to please the Lib Dems.

The polls continue to show the percentage of support for each of the two major parties down in the low thirties, with Ukip in the mid teens and the Greens nosing ahead of the Lib Dems down in single figures.

On present showing, Ukip would most likely take seats primarily… Read More

Since my last post a lot has been happening in the Westminster village. A lot of us old hands from both the Conservative and Labour parties had come to the conclusion that our parties were engaged in a massive struggle to out-lose each other.

Suddenly, however, it seems that Mr Cameron at least is listening to what his backbenchers and the opinion polls have been telling him for a long time now. Apart from a brief moment during the conference season the Conservatives have lagged behind Labour by two or three percentage points, well short of the lead they need to gain a majority next year. It it not just that the rhetoric about immigration has now been hardened, it has been laced with bits which might have been hijacked from speeches by Mr Farage, to the extent that… Read More

What a disgusting spectacle it was to see and hear the Labour benches in the Commons coming out in full hearted support from the besieged leader Ed Milliband. No, it wasn't about the economy or immigration nor the sharp fall in unemployment it was to attack that essentially decent, hardworking and thoughtful Minister (who takes no Ministerial salary) Lord Freud.

What was that got the Labour pack of stray dogs up to the attack? Lord Freud had been recorded by a Labour apparatchik responding to a questioner about the effect of the minimum wage freezing some severely disabled people out of employment.

So lets fill in the background to all this. Private sector employers have to remain competitive or they will be unable to pay the wages and employ anyone at all. If the minimum wage were set at £60 an hour rather than six, not many workers would be able to… Read More

What a week for nutcases, swivel-eyed loons and fruitcakes! Not so good for Labour who came close to losing a safe seat, nor for the Tories who actually did so.

As for the Liberals, their Conference was a catalogue of mishaps with the odd disaster thrown in, amid a foam-flecked tirade of abuse aimed at their Conservative colleagues in the Coalition. Perhaps their worst moment, however, was when the sandal-wearing green tendency repudiated the platform and voted to prevent the construction of any new runways anywhere in the country. As I was saying, what a week for the swivel-eyed loons.

Then there were the by-elections in which Labour just held on to a very safe seat at Heywood and Middleton but were… Read More

Unless one lived through the very dark days of the Seventies and the early Eighties it is hard to imagine the feelings of those of us who were engaged in the struggle against "the enemy within".

We were still in the midst of the Cold War, with the menace of Soviet imperialism and its very active network of sympathisers here in Britain. A few of those were dedicated Marxists, but far more were the useful fools, as Moscow called them.

In 1964 Ted Heath's Industrial Relations Act, designed to bring trade unions within the law, had collapsed in the face of a well-planned campaign of non-compliance with the law, and the first miners' strike led by Arthur Scargill had led to widespread power cuts, power station closures and a three-day week for much of British industry.

The contrast between both the actual performances of Mr Cameron and of almost all his Ministers at the Conservative Party Conference and the media's reporting of them, and those of Mr Milliband and his colleagues last week could hardly be greater.

The Tories arrived in Birmingham confused, anxious and alarmed at the defections to Ukip. They left full of bounce.

Is that it then? Is that the general election fought and won? Not quite I think.

Mr Cameron's speech was well contrived, and applauded in all the right places, but how will it read next spring? I have to say that the more often in one speech I hear that the speaker is patriotic and that he loves his country the more uneasy I get. There is, I think, some merit in understating one's one moral virtues and letting actions speak… Read More

Almost everyone has had a good laugh at the expense of Ed Milliband over his lamentable performance at the Labour Conference. However it was not just a laughing (or crying, if you happen to be a member of the shadow cabinet) matter to speak for 70 minutes without a mention of policy on the economy or immigration.

Curiously the Guardianista news staff at the BBC are now referring only to the absence of anything on the economy, but the two omissions have a common cause, one which would have been obvious to Freud. Deep down in the subconscious of Mr Milliband there was an overwhelming desire to pretend that those two hugely important subjects simply did not exist. In short, he self-censored his own speech.

Mr Milliband tried to excuse himself by suggesting that perhaps everyone had had enough of Balls on the economy the previous day, and certainly if volume… Read More

The people of Scotland have resisted the SNP's allurements to leap (without a life jacket) into the torrent leading to separation. Instead they have landed themselves in the bog of greater devolution and dragged England and Wales there too.

To be fair, the leaders of the three main parties also played a full part, and they will now be called to account by their parties for doing so.

Indeed, the only party leader to have emerged from it all with clean hands and increased public support is Nigel Farage.

Of course it might all have been worse. The No majority was much greater than the opinion polls had suggested and Mr Salmond's grievance machine has that much less to gripe about, but he has already… Read More